FAMAG 1923.13


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British nineteenth-/twentieth-century Neoclassical-revival scotia frame; with convex top edge, wide scotia, small bead and ogee to sight edge; finished with water-gilding; possibly original to the painting.

About this work


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Ronaldson, Thomas Martine (1881-1942): Lesley in the studio, signed and dated 1923, oil on canvas, 102 x 76 cms. Presented to the Corporation of Falmouth in 1923 by Alfred A. de Pass, in memory of his sons.


More information about the frame

Designs like this one were very long-lived because of their sheer simplicity, timeless quality, and versatility with respect to the subjects they enclosed and the interiors in which they hung. Like the ?Salvator Rosa? or ?Maratta?, the cassetta and the Baroque bolection frame, the Neoclassical scotia frame (often with cross-fluting in the scotia) continued to be produced long after its introduction in the late eighteenth century and is still thriving today. It was popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for its light-catching qualities ? so popular that the revival of this design continued from the original with hardly a break or change. Even in the age of electricity it remained important, for the many interiors into which daylight did not reach in any quantity, and also for paintings such as this, with a large area of dark ground. The warm but light-toned gilding has evidently been chosen to approximate to the values of the painting.